Leaves from the Vines

[Seras Goto]

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

"The defensive measures of the facility is under made. originally to not draw attention. People do not come to Ocecar-Faustin." She said it while walking and outside in the snow there was the look from the wall. ten meters of the crags that stretched out to the far end where the plasma bridge was the only way back to it. The crags going down nearly a milometer onto jagged rocks and the stone was made to be smooth. Geothermal taps under the rocks where she could bring up some more of it. The auto turrets and sensors on the walls to show off some parts of it. "Airships coming here face the more dangerous winds but the need for anti air turrets is a given. If you have ideas please present them. I welcome ideas for improving upon the design of what we have fashioned here."

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"What kind of soil is there at the bottom of the moat? It's entirely possible the experimental plant could work well in a type of soil and not another one"

Sure, plucky pilots won't be deterred by the weather, but if Seras think pilots, Sith or not, would simply be flying to their deaths, she is a little mistaken: turbulence is not much of a defense, and even those tin cans of death the Sith call fighters still have all-weather capability. Now, some anti-aircraft turrets are better than nothing, she thought, realizing that the bottom of a moat is, in fact, a more shade-intensive environment much like the lower levels of the D'Qar forest canopy, so it made all the more sense now to her why she chose the D'Qar creepervine as the main plant to knock in ice plant genes for cold resistance. And now the droids started to get the seeds planted in their designated areas, and [member="Seras Goto"] would get to the pelko barbs once all the 20 zones are properly seeded. The big question is: the soil. If the soil at the bottom of the moat is permafrost as it exists on Hoth, or similar, then there would be no real problems for the plant: in her mind what made the ice plant resistant to the cold temperatures of Hoth would also make it a good fit on a permafrost soil.

"The samples are getting planted at the bottom of the moat. In a day or two we shall see which ones worked and which ones don't: the successful sample(s) could grow about 20-30 cm a day"

 

[Seras Goto]

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

Seras was looking at her and watched where the droids were going. THe moat as it were was part of it but the vone only needed to go into the small ring along the wall. The vine could go down deeper into it but the facility was on a big part. "This entire world is permanently frosted in the csoiil. The areas near the geothermal vents we have tapped into are defrosted and where a few things can grow without much sunlight." She sait it while looking at the droids who were cultivating them. Setting them around the academy until the sith lord herself thoughh was walking around. Near the entrance as the doors were opened. The first sight across the chasm of the infected from the sickness. Frozen flesh that was puffy and slipping off of the bone in some places. Their snarls could be seen but the nanites worked to keep them from screaming.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"If some of those samples did, in fact, work, then the rest of those samples can be planted near the gate if they aren't already. Oh and maybe mortars could be installed on top of machineguns or other repeater cannons that can depress low enough to hit targets directly scaling the moat, hanging on to vines, if you feel indirect fire can provide an additional deterrent from attack, although I don't recommend to rely entirely on fixed defenses. From experience I know suppressive and indirect fire are, in fact, uncommon at best among potential attackers"

The samples furthest from the gate took longest to plant, if only because of the time it took those droids to navigate the turbulences as they existed inside the moat. Even so, it was all in a day's work, and the surveillance cameras around the existing anti-aircraft turrets would be able to check on what worked and what didn't. She had to admit that the anti-aircraft turrets [member="Seras Goto"] installed also put in a variety of sensor feeds for what's happening in the moat since these AA emplacements could also depress low enough to fire at targets in the moat, or else there would be no point in even having a moat to begin with. In her mind, moats were there to provide fields of fire for defending a facility, even if the method was a bit archaic; sappers could use the moat to plant explosives and undermine the wall. In fact, she had to be grateful for those gardening droids; Janick was, in fact, a little surprised by how fast the gardening droids were. At most I could expect 5-7 of the 20 to be viable but even 4 would be a win in my book, she thought, while the droids returned.

"<Seed planting complete>" the droid reported back in binary.

"Good"

 

[Seras Goto]

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

Seras looked at her and had a wicked grin under her mask. The sounds of the blizzard were there, the looks of the infected as she watched them. They were able to smell or sense the warmth of the blood, taste the flesh as it were and that was what they sought here but they couldn't hear anything. They wouldn't attack and they had learned eventually to not try jumping at the walls. THe distance was something their decaying muscles wouldn't allow them to reach. Seras stopped at one of the alcoves and there was the orchids. They could live here where there was a small heat vent keeping it warm and artificial sun lights above it. She walked speaking while the doors were closing. "The moat serves its purpose here, it keeps the things outside at bay and if I need to retrieve some samples for testing then I am able to. The more defensive we can make it the more we shall but I am not looking to draw to much attention. If possible the quarantine beacons in orbit are going to be improved. With a spacial network to make it more dangerous for others to get here. Much like at Mugg Fallow with a ring of dead ships."

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"What... all-weather aircraft does the Sisterhood use?"

The thing is that the only ground-based defenses on this planet are here, so it is, in fact, a priority target for any invader. Quarantine beacons, as Seras alluded to, typically include early warning systems, she thought, while hoping one squadron of aircraft would be enough to delay any would-be attacker until reinforcements could come. And, in fact, the Sisterhood de facto controlled Odacer-Faustin, so, while dealing with [member="Seras Goto"], she was also dealing with the local authorities. Now, Janick wouldn't be the one supplying the hardware if it came to it, but her suppliers could sell the Sisterhood J-95 interceptors, Chiloon-III/IV fighters, to name a few pieces of all-weather aircraft. Just that, in her mind, anything would be better than Sith-Imperial pilots, so she knew the Sisterhood's pilots would be better than the Sith's, if only marginally. But since the Sith were not posting a garrison on that planet, it was the Sisterhood's responsibility to provide for its defense - at least until the Sith's hands are forced, and it would not be pretty if their hands were, in fact, forced over this planet.

"I'll staying here for an extra day or two, to check on the growth of these plants: the successful samples can then be brought inside the walls for actual planting"

 

[Seras Goto]

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

"We have lambda transport shuttles outfitted for the cold. Since most do not come here, smuggling and getting supplies out here is easier. The rare brave fool thinking they can get rich finds only.... death and worse things here for some. The Batosai are not violent but they are not helpful either. They just want to be left alone on their world and the infected in the snow follow the warmth, follow the heat of visitors blood." There was a grin on her face under the mask as she was moving and there was more to the facility and academy. "We have not needed fighters since the sisterhod fell, we have not needed war ships since the sith have emerged now. Their.... violence takes the attention away from us. Obscures us from the view of the jedi and their sight within the force."

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"I guess, there is not much for me to do here until such time has come to transplant the viable samples from the outer moat to the inside buildings"

Understandably, from the sound of what [member="Seras Goto"] said about the all-weather aircraft of the Sisterhood, the Sith would grudgingly come to the planet's defense, based on sensor data feeds from early-warning sensors on the array of quarantine beacons, and it's not just the death of the last few intruders that tried to rob the planet of its buried treasures. She thus returned to the dorm room Seras earmarked for her and her minder on the bunk above. Sure the bunk is not as comfortable as her quarters back on the Verdict, the Compellor or possibly the Palace of Justice, in which she never slept, or even planetside on Utapau, but it beats sleeping on a cold hard floor. When she is back, facing her handler once again, and she feels that perhaps there is some bit of knowledge the handler may wish for but that the handler never got the opportunity to learn otherwise. Force-using or not, she was prepared to try to teach him whatever the handler wanted, to the extent she knew it. And maybe even infuse it, but before infusing the knowledge, she had to have a feel for the brain of that person: infuse too fast and pain will ensue. Just that her handler was a NFU and Force-powers were off-limits.

"Is there anything you would wish to learn? To the best of my ability I may as well teach you, and, if you wish it so, I can always infuse that knowledge which you seek into your brain"

 

[Seras Goto]

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

The being looked at the woman. Standing there in the room as she couldn't speak. the nanites in the air of Al-Khali kept the experiments from hearing them or seeing them. She just looked at the woman. Watching her to make sure she remained to the side of the room. She shook her head though keeping watch with a datapad that was connected to the facility. THrough private connections in the early warning system and relays it connected to programs on the holonet for them. She typed in an app to simulate a voice as it came out. Mechanical and not very big. "No, my position here is to watch you. Lady Goto has given us all orders." Meanwhile Seras was standing there in the courtyard as she looked at the statue where they looked at some parts of it. She had ideas and other servants were coming through the courtyard. ONe of the transports recently returned with supplies as they gave them new materials to work on the walls.